Brad Wardell's views about technology, politics, religion, world affairs, and all sorts of politically incorrect topics.
How to get the job
Published on May 24, 2007 By Draginol In Business

I've been doing a lot of interviewing lately for hiring new people and one thing that has become abundantly clear is how unprepared most people are for job interviews.

Here are a few handy tips that may seem like common sense to some but amazingly are not done by 75% of the people I interview (especially recent college graduates):

#1 KNOW THE COMPANY.  Get on the website and research the company. Make sure you know as much as you can about the company.  When I interview people, I tend to do a quick search for them. Do they have a MySpace page or Facebook page or something else that lets me find out a bit about them.  You'd be surprised how many people are tripped up when they are caught knowing nothing about our company but I know the name of their dog.

#2 BE CONFIDENT & ENERGETIC.  Believe in yourself. Nobody wants to hire someone that they think will need to be nursed for months.  We hire people in order to have LESS work to do.  People who aren't confident or energetic are more likely to be the people who sit around waiting to be managed.

#3 KNOW WHY YOU SHOULD HAVE THE JOB. The question "Why do you think we should hire you for this position versus other people who have applied" is a pretty common question.  Don't answer "Because I'm a nice person." Sell yourself, make the case. If you've researched the job, you should be able to come up with a good rationale for your unique capabilities.

#4 DON'T BULLSHIT. Male interviewees are much worse about this. Especially young (right out of college) males.  It takes a serious amount of arrogance for some kid to think they can actually bullshit us on our field of expertise. If I ask "How strong is your math background? Do you know Calc?" and you say "Oh yea, I'm awesome at calculus!" then you're pretty doomed if you don't know the derivative of 4X^2.

#5 FOLLOWUP.  I had some awesome candidates that just didn't followup or didn't follow-up quickly enough.  You should followup with any correspendence you had with the company within 24 hours. This is especially true after the final interview.  You absolutely must followup with an email after the interview.

#6 HUMILITY IS GOOD. We always ask people to rate themselves on a scale from 1 to 10 on a variety of issues depending on the job.  The number of recent graduates who rate themselves a 9 out of 10  or 10 out of 10 (and we tell them that a 10 would be "total expert") is remarkable.  There's nothing more deflating for a candidate who has just answered a 10 out of 10 in C++ knowledge or math or general computer knowledge than being quickly crushed by a series if expert questions that they have no idea about.  A good answer is 6 or 7 -- even if you feel pretty confident.  Unless you have software on the shelves or a book or whatever, answering above 7 reeks of arrogance. 

As a side note, also be nice to the office staff. Amazingly, a decent % of candidates will be rude or short with my office assistants thinking their opinions are of know consequence. First thing I ask my office assistants was how polite the candidate was to them.

#7 HAVE A PLAN.  Where do you see yourself in 5 years is a typical question. Have some idea of where you're going.

#8 "LIKE" and "YOU KNOW" are not your friends. Drives me crazy when candidates pepper their responses with immense amounts of "Like" and "You know".  Females seem much worse about this.  Practice speaking and eliminate those two phrases from your vocabular as much as you can.

#9 DON'T BE ASHAMED OF OLD JOBS. Sometimes I'll discover that someone has removed from their resume menial jobs they've had.  Don't.  Those are very important jobs that show character building.  I won't even consider hiring someone who has never worked a "crap job".  The kid with the 3.7 GPA is not very impressive if they've never had a job. They'll lose everytime to the kid with the 2.9 who worked through school.  People without crap jobs are historically much less reliable.

#10 INTEGRITY IS KING.  More so than your job knowledge, employers will look at your integrity and ability to deal with conflict. We're at work 8+ hours a day, who wants to deal with someone who's difficult? Be honest.  The worst answer to the question "How have you dealt with interpersonal conflict at previous jobs" is to say "I've never had any." As it means either you have no job experience or you aren't telling the whole truth either of which is doom. We all have disagreements with coworkers from time to time, even if they're mild, it's a question of finding out how you deal with those disagreements.

Hope this helps!


Comments (Page 1)
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on May 24, 2007
Great list, Draginol. I would add one thing, though (in line with your tip to treat the office staff well): You're being observed, even when you think you are not.

Here's what I mean: about two weeks ago, I was given the privilege of getting to take a team and pick through the "bone pile" of a Fortune 500 company (I don't want to reveal the name for obvious reasons). The invite was for me, but I like to keep my contacts intact, so I invited along a few pals also working towards Computer Technology degrees. It didn't occur to me at first, but some comments from our contact a couple hours in made it obvious that he was observing us. He hires people for a living, and so we may have made or broke a potential future contact. I know one individual in the group who broke it, but not 100% sure where the rest of us stood.

on May 24, 2007
Good addition Gideon.  That is true, employers do everything from watch how you handle your car in the parking lot to how you treat people as you come inside to setting up minor frustrations to see how people deal with them.
on May 25, 2007
I am 1/3 of my way through a 3 week onboaring process at a new company; your list seems fairly spot-on. I was about half-way though doing my follow-up Email when I was called with the offer. I made sure I still did the follow-up Email, changing it just a bit to account for the offer...

The tips on this list are pretty much what my headhunter told me about 2 months ago-- applying them was what got me my current job. I wish I'd known them long ago...
on May 25, 2007
I am taking off of the job hunt until the end of summer but these are great tips. I plan to start looking again in July. It really can be discouraging when you don't know what you're doing wrong. I think I definately need that boost of confidence and need to learn to sell myself. Thanks for sharing.
on May 25, 2007

Great tips.  I haven't had an official job interview in a loooong time...but I bet next time I do, I'll remember this.

Good luck Loca!

on May 25, 2007
I am ashamed to say that you may have pointed out to me just about every mistake I possibly made in past interviews that never yielded back good results.

On #1, I have never really made it my job to know much about the jobs I’ve applied for. I guess it never really occurred to me to do such a thing. And it’s such an obvious action to take.

On #2, I am honest when I say that I do tend to doubt myself often though I do my best to not make it so obvious. I guess it’s possible I may have not succeeded before. I don’t doubt my abilities, it’s just that I have had so many rejections that I tend to wonder if it’s me or is it that I’m just not what they are looking for. After reading this, I am leaning more towards doing a lot of the things you point to as “doomed from the start” actions.

On #3, I think I do pretty well when it comes to selling myself, but I know I can do better and #2 is probably the on thing I need to fix the most in order to improve #3.

On #4, Honesty is most important to me, often I think it’s my demise since I tend to be too honest, to the point that I say things that were not necessary to mention and could have been my downfall. I am nervous by nature, most likely why I become too honest at times.

On #5, I never really new about the follow up. I have called before to ask how it’s going or when will I hear from them. Nothing like an email though. I will give this one more thought to see how I can improve this.

On #6, this is a good one. Will I never place myself as a 9 or 10 I have often wondered what would be a good choice to show myself as being good without sounding either too arrogant or thinking too little of myself. I like this tip, it helps a lot.

On #7, Somehow I have always had problems with this. I have never been able to understand how to answer this question. Not till now. Just this small explanation was enough to make me understand and it will help me be prepared next time.

On #8, I agree, I even find it annoying during a conversation. You won’t here these from me much.

On #9, this is where you got me good. I was totally wrong on this one. I always felt some jobs were not worth mentioning, and after seeing what LW said about her husband, I see it was a big mistake to alter the resume in this manner. I’m sure that this together with improving #2 and #3 will make a huge difference next time around. No longer will I be ashamed of past jobs or see them as not being useful towards any job I am seeking.

On #10, I feel good about this one. I always do my best to solve problems with the least amount of hostility as possible. I try to not end up with enemies with co-workers when we disagree on something. I’ll never understand why people are willing to risk their jobs just to be right all the time even when they are wrong.

I am very thankful that you posted these tips. It has given me a great deal of help, it has made me think hard on my mistakes and where I thought there weren’t any. It will definitely improve my next job interview. With your permission I plan to share this information with everyone interested in using it. Especially those who I know are looking. Again thanks.
on May 25, 2007
Draginol, do you use personality tests at your company? Ever since I was told that I "failed" one, I am paranoid about them now. I just wondered what your take is on these tests as an empoyer.
on May 25, 2007
Thanks. I'm printing this out for my two kids who, hopefully, are not too far away from some serious interviewing.
on May 25, 2007
On #3: I hate this question and its friend, "What will you bring to our workplace?"

To actually answer these is to show a pretty high degree of presumption; after all, you've never worked there and you probably haven't met the other candidates. Saying you'll bring great skills in x is just another way of saying no one there already has great skills in x. It's the kind of question that lets an interviewer discard you for no better reason than a hunch because there really is no right way to answer it.

When I've been on the interviewing panel (it's happened twice in my short, short careers) asking this question I've always spoken in favour of the person who answers, "Isn't that for you to decide?"

Then again I've never been in 'real' management, so maybe it has some special purpose I don't understand.
on May 25, 2007
An Addendum to #2:  Look the interviewer in the eye.  I interviewed one guy who was perfect for the job (technically), but during the whole interview, he had his eyes on his hands and never looked up.  Needless to say, we did not hire him.
on May 25, 2007
Locamama,

Can you actually fail a personality test? wow, that is a great one! Of course if your applying for certain jobs, I could understand it, but I would also want to know up front what was being considered on a personality test and why it *might* disqualify me and if so, then perhaps I would not have wanted that job anyhow.

Of course isn't the interview itself sort of a test to determine if your personality fits in with who you will be working with.
on May 25, 2007
I had an interview with a company that uses personality and IQ tests. I was referred to the company through a recruiter I knew. The first 2 interviews went great and the recruiter said they loved me. I just had to go back and write the tests. After that I didn't hear from them for a week. Finally the recruiter was called back by them and they told him they had some concerns because I scored too high on the IQ portion of the test. In the end I didn't get the job because of it. They felt I would not be able to relate to other people in the office. The recruiter was speechless, he didn't understand the logic at all. But I ended up being hired by a better company for a better job.

The worst job I ever had was a summer job when I was in High School. Worked for a manufacturing company. They made parts out of plastic. It was a 12 hour shift starting 7pm and ending 7am from Monday to Thursday. I didn't have a car and buses didn't run near there so I biked 2 hours to work and 2 hours back home every day. Since I was just the new high school kid I got the crap jobs nobody else wanted to do. I was way in the back where the ventilation was horrible. There was a constant blue haze from the burnt plastic and fine plastic dust from a shredder near by. I had a migraine every day I worked there. Don't even want to think how many brain cells I lost while working there and what I did to my lungs.
on May 25, 2007
Good post Draginol and a helpful one at that, thank you for posting it. A lot of it is good common sense.


Do they have a MySpace page or Facebook page or something else that lets me find out a bit about them. You'd be surprised how many people are tripped up when they are caught knowing nothing about our company but I know the name of their dog.


This conjures an image! Poor sod! I know about checking of references but Googling them? This is a new twist!

(Citizen)cactoblasta
May 25, 2007 11:07:51
Reply #10
On #3: its friend, "What will you bring to our workplace?"


Agreed, I have found this to be the most awful question.
on May 25, 2007
this is a good read. most of this stuff was taught to me by my father growing up. he actually made me a list one time and i still have it. it is very similar to this. and his advice has served me well on both sides of the interview desk.

a couple of notes...




#4 DON'T BULLSHIT



depending on the definition of this, i might disagree a smidge. i've done most of my hiring in the sales field. in a more technical operations field i would understand not wanting a "bs'er." but where i would never want a liar as an employee, i do look for people who can sell themselves a little better than the pack. someone who can "sell" his/her past experiences and education as something special. but not baldfaced lying. that's different.

#10 INTEGRITY IS KING


going back to number 4, that is the line that can't be crossed. i expect applicants to be able to sell themselves, but without crossing that line. you want someone who can "spin" selling for you. but you don't want someone misrepresenting your product / service for a commission or bonus. and if they misrepresent themselves, odds are they won't have any scruples and will misrepresent you and your company. that will eventually lead to a disaster much worse than any business the liar might have drawn in. especially in smaller businesses that can't afford lawsuits so easily.
on May 25, 2007
You absolutely must follow up with an email after the interview.



I have in the past followed up with a call but have hated doing that with a vengeance (and they could probably tell in the tone, no matter how hard you try to hide it it probably shows) an email is probably better.

This is a very handy list for youngsters starting out. I am going to print this off for my daughter, thanks.
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